Many of you have been watching the water tower in downtown Newton over the past week.
As you have been watching, you’ve been seeing a part of Newton and Newton County’s history fading to blue. The tower which featured the prominent logo of La-Z-Boy is being sandblasted away as La-Z-Boy continues with the permanent shutdown of the plant that’s been a fixture in Newton for more than 60 years.
Over a year ago, the final manufacturing jobs from the facility ended and were shipped to Mexico. It’s one thing if the jobs went to another state in the union, but it went outside the country, following the long trend of companies moving jobs to other parts of the world for cheaper labor costs.
While it sounds like I’m a bit bitter about it, I’m also glad that La-Z-Boy did give us so many good jobs for so many years. There’s no telling how many families were positively impacted by the manufacturing plant being here. There’s no telling how much of an economic impact it made on Newton County over the years.
So, it is true: the end is near, at least for La-Z-Boy’s impact on Newton. As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.
However, the thing is that every ending can be the beginning of something new.
In this case, maybe we can see something good happen here in Newton County. Sure, it’s not good to lose a business, no matter how big or small.
With an end, that also means there’s room for something new to sprout. I have no idea what that will be. There’s no way we’ll probably get a manufacturer like that here in Newton County. When La-Z-Boy came here, it was a huge thing for everyone here.
That’s why many talk about the “heydey” of Newton being in the 1980s, when there were multiple grocery stores, retail shops in downtown and businesses thriving everywhere.
With the way that kind of business is, it’s nearly impossible to see that return to the levels it was then. And that’s likely true for every downtown in America. However, maybe we have some smart, driven entrepreneurs here in our area that can do something new that will lead to something good for our community.
Brent can be reached at bmaze@newtoncountyappeal.com.
